Students from the Kennedy School of Government and Harvard University are demanding an inquiry into Harvard’s 2009 approval of a thesis claiming that Hispanic immigrants lack “raw cognitive ability or intelligence” compared with whites.

The thesis —“IQ and Immigration Policy’’ — by former PhD candidate Jason Richwine states that Hispanics traditionally have low IQ scores and will be inherently less intelligent than native whites. He also said the US should only allow immigrants with high IQs.

“Today’s immigrants are not as intelligent on average as white natives,’’ Richwine wrote in his dissertation “IQ and Immigration Policy. “The IQ difference between the two groups is large enough to have substantial negative effects on the economy and on American society.”